


Please walk Ahead

by FireThatFox



Series: Japanese Folklore, Myths and legends [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireThatFox/pseuds/FireThatFox
Summary: When you are walking down a lonely mountain road at night, and you hear footsteps behind you, don’t be alarmed. You have probably attracted the attention of that amiable yokai Betobeto-san. If you aren’t in the mood for yokai company, just step to one side of the road and say “Oh please, Betobeto-san—you first.” With that said, Betobeto-san will walk on by.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: Japanese Folklore, Myths and legends [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870282
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	Please walk Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY HALOWEEN!

Sakura stumbled out of Naruto’s house, her hand catching on his porch rail. This was the last time she gave in against her better judgement and took that asshole Uchiha back. He had cheated on her again! At one of their best friend’s houses! In front of her!

She swiped vainly at her eyes. She knew she must look a terrible mess, her makeup ruined and running down her cheeks, mixed with her tears. What the hell was wrong with her, what the hell had she been thinking, forgiving Sasuke again after he had cheated on her no less than two months ago at a different party!

Done. She was done with him. She was the laughing stock of Konoha.

Sakura stumbled on her heels and cursed. Drunk or not she could never walk in heels. She had only worn them because ‘He’ had told her she looked sexy in them.

“Not sexy enough apparently.” She slurred to herself. “Asshole!” She threw her heels at Naruto’s porch, envisioning Sasuke’s head. The drink Shisui had given her was taking full effect. She hadn’t realized how much alcohol was in it when she had drunk it. Another Uchiha to murder when she got around to it.

With as much dignity as one could muster, drunk and broken hearted, Sakura stiffened her back and walked down the street toward the end of town where her little run down apartment was. It wasn’t much, but it was home. She sighed. Soon, she would have a nicer place, after her first year residency she would be making a lot more money and could afford something much bigger and much nicer...something that didn’t have creaking doors and mismatched windows.

Speaking of creaking...her head snapped to the left where a gate had blown open in the cold fall breeze. “EEEEEEEEEkkkkkkkk.” The gate slowly resumed its original position and latched itself back onto the fence post as she stood there stupidly and watched.

“Heh.” Sakura chuckled to herself. It was just a gate. Still, a small shiver ran down her back and it wasn’t from the cold.

The cold. Damn it. She had been so distraught...and drunk, she had forgotten her coat at Naruto’s. She should go back and get it. It was cold outside at night this time of the year and getting colder.

She turned around, lifted her head and groaned...where was she? She didn’t recognize this street. How had she gotten here and where…”Damn it!”

She had been so pissed off that she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going and now...she was lost.

Looking left then right she noticed the Naka river shrine. Oh! If she followed the river, she would come to her apartment, it backed up to the river. With new found determination she ignored the curling in her gut that told her this was a bad idea, flung the torn and broken fairy wing to her costume over her shoulder and stomped off toward the river bank.

There was a path through the woods that she would run on in the early mornings that she should be able to follow all the way home, it was perfect. Sakura strode to the familiar path and smiled. She would be home in less than fifteen minutes, into her hot bath in thirty minutes and into bed in an hour to sleep the alcohol and this horrible night away into a memory.

The water was moving swiftly and darkly. There was something ominous about swift moving water in the night. The dark current dragging and purling over the surface like volcanic glass, or some eerie highway to the underworld. Sakura shivered. She was letting her imagination get the best of her.

Timidly, she set her foot upon the path, slowly she began to walk along the water’s edge averting her eyes from the swirling darkened abyss to her right.

Briefly she wondered if Sasuke had noticed she had left. She wondered if Ino was yelling at him and hoped Naruto’s party wouldn’t be ruined because of her like his birthday party had been ruined...the last time Sasuke had cheated on her.

Sakura clenched her fists at her side. She was so stupid! What kind of a masochist keeps forgiving an asshole like that!

She sighed. She knew why...she loved him, well she had loved him once...she wasn’t sure anymore. He had hurt her so many times...

Sakura stopped walking, tears rolling down her face dripping onto her silk dress. 

Her and Ino had planned this night for weeks. Ino had helped her find the perfect dress. It was beautiful, all white and pink and green, flowing like spring around her waist and ankles, cut up the side and fit her like a second skin. Iridescent fairy wings hung gracefully down her nearly bare back and almost touched the ground.

She had been so excited for him to see her in it but then...she had gotten to Naruto’s party late...and had found him in one of the bedrooms with…’her’, their name didn’t matter, it was always a nameless ‘her’ taking her place.

“I deserve better!” Sakura screamed into the void. “I can’t keep doing this!” She was yelling at herself, she knew...there was no one else out here to hear her. She was pathetic.

She turned back to the moonlit path of the forest and listened to the water churning over the rocks to her right. Somehow it wasn’t quite as eerie anymore, it was...relaxing. She was still cold, but she didn’t feel quite as alone as she had a moment ago. Maybe a nice walk through the darkened empty forests in the middle of the night is just what she needed.

Throwing her hair over her shoulder, she continued down the path. 

“Click clack...click clack…” The sound of footsteps could be heard behind her.

Sakura turned on her path and looked behind her. There was nothing there, only the night.

“I must be more intoxicated than I thought.” She laughed nervously resuming her travels.

“Click clack...click clack…” The sound of footsteps came again, just as faint, just as mysteriously. Sakura stopped and looked behind her again but the footsteps had stopped when she had stopped.

Her mother, when she was younger, used to tell her the tale of Betobeto San. Sakura had always thought of it nothing more than a folklore, a myth or a legend of old that the elders tell the children to remind them of the spirits that created the great islands of Japan but now...here in the dark, in the moonlit forests alone...she wondered, were they really just tales or was there substance to those old myths?

Sakura turned around, took a deep calming breath, and placed one foot in front of the other. After a few steps she heard it again.

“Click clack...click clack…” The sound of footsteps, only this time...they were closer, much closer and much louder. Sakura’s heart thrummed in her chest. She was a modern woman, a doctor, a scientist! There was no such thing as Betobeto San!

Licking her lips, she turned around yet again and looked into the empty dark. A cold breeze whipped through the forest, picking her hair up from her shoulders and blowing it off to the sides in a swirl of cold and ice.

The dress she was wearing was beautiful...but thin. She shivered from head to barefoot. Damn it, she cursed her temper. Why had she thrown her shoes at Naruto’s porch! A lot of good it would do her against a demon though. She laughed, a light laugh like the tinkling of bells in the winter.

The air shifted around her and she could feel the temperature drop even further. She had to get home quickly. Demons be damned or spirits who cared, hypothermia was more real than some shapeless forest walking demon that liked to scare the piss out people who walked in the woods at night.

Sakura turned around for what she hoped was the last time and started to walk quickly down the path before her. Again, the clack clack of a wooden shoe sounded out behind her. This time, she didn’t stop, she knew there wasn’t anything there, she knew it was only her imagination, she knew she was drunk or crazy or....

“Click clack...click clack…” 

She ran…

“Click clack...click clack…” 

She screamed, pushing her legs as fast as she could until her toe caught on a rock...she jolted forward, she screamed again and fell…

...warmth enveloped her. Sakura looked up into the dark glittering eyes of Sasuke’s older brother, Itachi Uchiha.

“Itachi!” She gasped. “Betobeto san! He’s…”

Sakura blushed and looked around Itachi to the empty path.

“He was, it was...I heard them I swear.” She muttered.

“The demon Beto Beto who walks after travelers in the night?” Itachi’s mouth quirked up at the corners as he drew her further into his arms, his warm hands brushing across the dip in her dress along her back.

“I know I sound ridiculous Itachi but I swear I heard them.” She looked up into his eyes willing him to understand, to believe her. She felt ridiculous enough tonight with Sasuke cheating on her...she didn’t need his older brother laughing at her either.

“I believe you.” Itachi smiled down at her. “Come Sakura. I’ll see you home.”

Itachi picked her up in his arms, wrapping the ends of his fall kimono over her shoulders to keep her warm. 

Sakura laid her head against his chest. Itachi had always been so kind to her, but she had always only seen him as Sasuke’s older, quiet brother, nothing more. This was different though, this was...nice.

“Did you try telling Betobeto San to walk by you, to move ahead of you Sakura?” Itachi’s deep voice floated down to her, somewhere around her middle where her heat began to pool and swirl.

“Hum?” She burrowed into his heat, her eyes closing, he smelled so good.

Itachi smiled, looked behind him and nodded to Beto beto San.

“Betobeto-san, Osakini Okoshi” お先にお越し. “Please Betobeto-san, you go first.”

“Arigato.” A median voice spoke politely to Itachi.

“Click clack...click clack…” 

Itachi waited for the sound of Betobeto’s footsteps to fade back into the night. Hoisting Sakura more securely in his arms he continued down the path toward her apartment. He had watched her leave Naruto’s Halloween party, a party he had only gone to because he had heard she would be going. 

He had asked one of the nurses at the hospital to do what they could to keep Sakura a little later there that day in hopes of getting to the party before her. He had pushed the girl dressed like a slutty succubus into his brother’s arms just before he thought Sakura would arrive and had made sure that the door to the bedroom Sasuke had been pulled into had been left unlocked.

When Sakura had arrived at the party, he had almost failed to nod to Shisui who had been waiting for the sign to guide her upstairs to ‘find’ Sasuke with the tramp. She had looked so beautiful, but he had nodded.

Shisui, the good friend and wing man that he was, had pushed a liquoured drink into Sakura’s hand and had toasted the night with her, making sure she drained her glass before pushing her up the stairs.

A moment later, both reality and alcohol hit her system like a truck. He had watched as she ran down the stairs, tripped over her shoes and out the front door. He had stood by the window and watched her scream and cry, throw her shoes at the porch and run off into the woods.

Slowly, cautiously he had followed her. The muted clack of his wooden shoes echoing off the forest path. Sasuke was no good for her. He had cheated on her more than she knew. It didn’t matter in Itachi’s mind that he said he was sorry. It didn’t matter if he promised her he wouldn’t cheat on her again. Itachi knew it was only a matter of time.

Itachi just chose the next time for him...Sasuke did the act on his own.

It was for the best. 

Sakura deserved someone better. Someone whole who could love her the way she deserved to be loved. Him.

It hadn’t been his original intent to frighten her. Once he realized his shoes were scaring her, stirring up childhood memories of folklore and fairy tales of demons in the woods, he had discarded his sandals.

When she had broken out into a dead run, he had chased her. When she had fallen, he had caught her.

It hadn’t been his original intent to impersonate Betobeto San...but it had worked in his favor.

Itachi pulled Sakura’s key from her purse and opened the door to her dingy apartment. When they were married he would buy her a house. When they were married she would want for nothing.

“Arigato Betobeto San.” Itachi smiled softly into Sakura’s hair as he closed the door behind him.


End file.
